FIRST
READING: Deuteronomy
7: 6 - 11
6
You are a people consecrated to Yahweh, your God. Yahweh has chosen
you from among all the peoples on the face of the earth, that you may
be his own people.
7
Yahweh has bound himself to you and has chosen you, not because you
are the most numerous among all the peoples (on the contrary, you are
the least).
8
Rather, he has chosen you because of his love for you and to fulfill
the oath he made to your fathers. Therefore, with a firm hand Yahweh
brought you out from slavery in Egypt, from the power of Pharaoh.
9
So know that Yahweh, your God, is the true and faithful God. He keeps
his covenant, and his love reaches to the thousandth generation for
those who love him and fulfill his commandments,
10
but he punishes in their own persons those who hate him and he repays
them without delay.
11
So keep the commandments, the norms and the laws that today I command
you to practice.
PSALM:
Psalms 103:
1 - 4, 6 - 7, 8, 10
1
Bless the Lord, my soul; all my being, bless his holy name!
2
Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all his kindness;
3
he forgives all your sins and heals all your sickness;
4
he redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with love and
compassion;
6
The Lord restores justice and secures the rights of the oppressed.
7
He has made known his ways to Moses and his deeds to the people of
Israel.
8
The Lord is gracious and merciful, abounding in love and slow to
anger;
10
He does not treat us according to our sins, nor does he punish us as
we deserve.
SECOND
READING: 1 John
4: 7 - 16
7
My dear friends, let us love one another for love comes from God.
Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8
Those who do not love have not known God, for God is love.
9
How did the love of God appear among us? God sent his only Son into
this world that we might have life through him.
10
This is love: not that we loved God but that he first loved us and
sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11
Dear friends, if such has been the love of God, we, too, must love
one another.
12
No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in
us, and his love spreads freely among us.
13
How may we know that we live in God and he in us? Because God has
given us his Spirit.
14
We ourselves have seen and declare that the Father sent his Son to
save the world.
15
Those who acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in
them and they in God.
16
We have known the love of God and have believed in it. God is love.
The one who lives in love, lives in God and God in him.
GOSPEL:
Matthew 11:
25 - 30
25
On that occasion Jesus said, "Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
I praise you, because you have hidden these things from the wise and
learned and revealed them to simple people.
26
Yes, Father, this is what pleased you.
27
Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the
Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and
those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28
Come to me, all you who work hard and who carry heavy burdens and I
will refresh you.
29
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble of
heart; and you will find rest.
30
For my yoke is good and my burden is light."
